via www.nytimes.com
It’s 42 steps from my back door to the garden that keeps my family supplied nine months of the year with a modest cornucopia of lettuce, beets, spinach, beans, tomatoes, basil, corn, squash, brussels sprouts, the occasional celeriac and, once when I was feeling particularly energetic, a couple of small but undeniable artichokes. You’ll get no argument from me about the pleasures and advantages to the palate and the spirit of eating what’s local, fresh and in season.
But the local food movement now threatens to devolve into another one of those self-indulgent — and self-defeating — do-gooder dogmas. Arbitrary rules, without any real scientific basis, are repeated as gospel by “locavores,” celebrity chefs and mainstream environmental organizations. Words like “sustainability” and “food-miles” are thrown around without any clear understanding of the larger picture of energy and land use.


Welcome! » New Information And A New Format Is On The Way This Year
Welcome! It is good to find you visiting the home of InsideUrbanGreen.org, successor to InsidePlantsLive.org and Greenscaper.net started in 2004.
Bear with us. We are in the process of updating our content and mission to keep up with a fast changing world. There will be even more coverage of science-based greenscaping technology from around the world in the coming year.
A site redesign is in the works. This blog will continue and later this year become a part of a new website for the Center for Urban Greenscaping (CuGreen). Stay tuned.
We will report on a wide variety of user-friendly plant growing methods based on science and technology. They are far more productive and environmentally beneficial than growing in often-contaminated city soils and arcane clay pots.
Local food production, personal and family food security are top priorities in the coming year. Everyone living in land-scarce cities should have access to knowledge about modern food growing methods that do not require access to tillable soil. There should be no need to self-identify as a gardener, farmer or have a mythical green thumb.
Whether or not one chooses to grow some food, everyone should have the knowledge of how to do it using modern methods. This in our view is the cornerstone of true food security. The knowledge of how to grow food should be as generic as knowing how to cook it.
We believe that food growing is personal and need not be communal. We also believe in the ancient Chinese proverb credited to Lao Tzu - "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime."
Your comments and constructive suggestions are always welcome.
Bob Hyland, Urban Greenscaper
Founder of the Center for Urban Greenscaping (CuGreen)
email: urbangreenscaper [AT] gmail [DOT] com
Posted by Greenscaper on January 03, 2011 at 10:16 AM in Editorial Comment | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)